While infrastructure is crucial for any country's smooth functioning, Belgium boasts some examples of construction that leave locals and tourists scratching their heads, like useless tunnels, bridges, and dead-end roads.
Dozens of useless infrastructure works or boondoggles began flooding the country in the 1950s. Growing car traffic led to constructing thousands of kilometres of highways and regional roads. Soon, grotesque infrastructure works started, whose usefulness was sometimes only somewhat questioned after a few years. From the 1980s onwards, the money tap was turned off for less-privileged public works.
Useless bridges
The result? Belgium was flooded with half-finished tunnels, viaducts and dead-end roads, not to mention useless pre-metro tunnels, canals, hospitals, etc. Here are some of Belgium's most notable examples of useless construction works.
Dead-end roads
Why has Belgium proved so prone to useless work? Many of these public works were due to the Belgian waffle-iron policy of the 1970s and 1980s, but since the Ministry of Public Works transferred to the regions in the late 1990s, useless bridges and roads were still being built. Three never-finished road complexes have since fallen prey to nature.
Useless tunnels
The Belgian capital, Brussels, is home to two useless tunnels.
Underutilized megaprojects
The Strépy-Thieu boat lift and the Inclined Plane of Ronquières are two monumental engineering feats in Belgium that, despite their impressive designs, have often been criticized as symbols of overambitious and ultimately underutilized construction projects.
The Strépy-Thieu boat lift, one of the tallest in the world, and the Ronquières inclined plane were both part of grand plans to boost inland waterway traffic. However, the expected surge in traffic never materialized, leaving these structures as oversized and largely underused monuments.
Discover more useless megaprojects like airports, canals, etc.
